Weather hammers Patterson festival

Severe weather and associated warnings interrupted the band schedule and kept patrons away from the 24th annual Patterson Cypress Sawmill Festival.
Steve Bierhorst, festival chairman, said, in short, “the weather got us.”
Lake Charles Weather Service estimates that the Patterson area received .75 inch to 1 inch of rain between Friday and Sunday. Various severe storm warnings and tornado warnings were issued throughout the weekend.
Friday night saw good crowds with the Country Showdown, a country music talent contest spotlighting local performers, Bierhorst said.
Carrie Stansbury, Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau director, said that while previous years brought 30,000 to 40,000 people to the area for three days, that was not the case this year.
“It was a huge disappointment for them. Even at the times it was not raining, people were just scared off by the weather … They work all year long to put on the event and raise money, and there’s nothing you can do about the weather,” Stansbury said.
She estimated about one-third of the typical crowds came to the festival.
Bierhorst said the lower crowd numbers were difficult for the event.
“We don’t even know whether we’re going to meet expenses yet this year or not,” Bierhorst said.
Bad weather Saturday caused the cancellation of some bands and the fireworks salute honoring the armed forces, police and firefighters. For Sunday, a north Louisiana band was forced to cancel because of weather-impacted travel. Bierhorst said Don Rich filled in the time slot.
Rich and Waylon Thibodeaux both played Sunday and “did an outstanding job,” Bierhorst said.
The festival closed at 4:30 p.m., shortly after those performances. The chairman said the public was admitted free on Sunday.
The removal of the $10 per car entry fee Sunday was done to support the vendors who attend the festival year after year, Bierhorst said.
“Of course, we can’t control the weather … we haven’t been rained out in a long, long time. We’re hoping by letting some people in the gate free Sunday maybe they’ll support us better next year. We owed the public that much,” he said.
Several events did go on as scheduled including the petting zoo, face painting, the fair and the craft show.
“We hope our sponsors continue to help us out next year … we pride ourselves on having a family festival, and that’s not going to change”
The 2015 edition of the festival will move to the second weekend of April due to the Easter holiday.